š CAT Newsletter 271 - 2025-06-08
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 271 of the ClimateAction.tech (CAT) Newsletter - your weekly summary of what's happening inside the CAT community, and in the wider world of climate and tech. New to CAT or looking to re-discover the community? Try outĀ our onboarding checklist.
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CAT Community News
š° Apply for a mini grant
Got a project in mind for 2025? Applications are open for our next round of mini grants!Ā Apply through this formĀ and your project will be evaluated this month.Ā More info
The mini-grant program is funded by CAT donations. If you want to see more of these,Ā donating via OpenCollective is the fastest easiest way to support this work.
š CAT Book club
Last chance to vote for the next book club date! Head to Slack now! We'll be discussing Insolvent: How to Reorient Computing for Just SustainabilityĀ by Christoph Becker. TheĀ e-book version is available for free directly from MIT.Ā
š CAT Events
Tue, Jun 24 Ā· Code Green London June meetup [in-person] RSVP on Meetup
Join host and CAT volunteerĀ @April BatesĀ and hear fromĀ @Adam NewmanĀ about 'Digital Sustainability: measuring what matters, from data to decisions' and fromĀ @Mark BussĀ about 'Advocating for Digital Sustainability'. This is also a great opportunity to connect with otherĀ #local-londonĀ CATs - head to the channel and share whether you'll be there!
Want to see some local meet-ups in your city / region? Why not join the volunteering team as Local Meetup Organizer?
š Other local events
You can also meet CATs facilitating and participating at external events like theĀ Green Tech ForumĀ inĀ #local-belgiumĀ on June 17-18,Ā Climate Action WeekĀ inĀ #local-londonĀ on June 21-29, orĀ Green IOĀ inĀ #local-munichĀ later in July. Simply coordinate with other CATs in the corresponding local channels.
š© Community networking
Every 2 weeks, we match 2-3 CATs so you can connect over a quick 30-minute call. Join #cat-roulette, pick your region and wait for a message from Donut. The next round of matches will go out on Fri, June 13th. More info.
Media, events, and news
šŗ CAT recommendations
ā¶ļø CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
Planet A: The U.S. is giving up on climate ā others are cashing in
Donald Trump rolled back decades of US climate policy in his first days back in the Oval Office. But how will his moves affect global progress?
š¤Ā Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
Catalyst: What to make of Trump's deep-sea minerals push
In April, the Trump administration issued an executive order to accelerate the development of deep-sea minerals ā part of its broader push for "energy dominance." The world's oceans hold vast, untapped deposits of critical minerals like nickel, copper, manganese, and rare earth elements ā all essential to batteries and clean energy technologies.
Despite decades of interest, no commercial deep-sea mining project has begun production. The reasons? Regulatory uncertainty, environmental concerns, and the complexity of processing polymetallic nodules.
So what does this new executive order actually do?
Outrage and Optimism: COP30 - Can Brazil deliver a global breakthrough?
This November, Brazil will host COP30 in BelƩm, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, in what is bound to be a moment packed with symbolism, high expectations, and global significance. This week, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson explore what's at stake, what Brazil wants to achieve, and whether the world is ready to move from ambition to implementation.
Zero, The Climate Race: A skilled worker shortage is becoming an 'existential' problem for the energy transition: Bottlenecks Series
Western economies need to electrify and fast, but where are all the skilled workers going to come from to install the heat pumps, solar panels and batteries needed? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with Olivia Rudgard about the shortage of labor in electrification industries, and why some experts are calling it an 'existential' crisis. This is the second episode in Bottlenecks, a new series exploring the lesser known obstacles standing in the way of our electrified future.
Environment Variables: Cloud Native Attitude
Environment Variables host Anne Currie welcomes Jamie Dobson, co-founder of Container Solutions and author of the upcoming book Visionaries, Rebels and Machines. Together, they explore the history and future of cloud computing through the lens of sustainability, efficiency, and resilience. Drawing on insights from their past work, including The Cloud Native Attitude and Building Green Software, they discuss how cloud-native principles can support the transition to renewable energy, the potential and pitfalls of AI, and why behavioral change, regulation, and smart incentives are key to a greener digital future.
Invested in Climate: The Role of Family Offices with Spring Lane Capital & CREO
The climate transition needs more than moneyāit needs the right kind of capital. Too many climate innovations get stuck in the missing middle, lacking the growth-stage funding they need to scale.
CREO is working to mobilize $1 trillion for climate in the coming years. We talk about insights from their recent report on the missing middle, how climate investing has evolved in recent years, the role of catalytic capital, whether investors are backing away from climate amidst changing policy and macro-factors, and much more.
š Submitted events
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
Tuesday Jun 17, 2025 - Green Tech Forum Brussels
The event highlights innovative solutions in frugal AI, energy-efficient data centers, eco-friendly software development, green cloud computing, IT refurbishing, WEEE recycling, and more.
Saturday Jun 21, 2025 - London Climate Action Week
London Climate Action Week 2025:- 350+ Events, 45,000 attendees Themes; Building climate ambition on the road to COP30, Financing inclusive and resilient climate transition, Delivering a net zero and resilient London and UK, Mobilising Whole of Society Climate Action
Saturday Jun 21, 2025 - London Climate Action Week
London Climate Action Week mobilises Londonās unparalleled ecosystem of climate and non-climate organisations to accelerate global climate action and supports action in London to ensure it acts as a global climate leader.āÆāÆ9 days, 300+ Events, 45,000 attendees.
Thursday Jul 03, 2025 - Green IO Munich 2025
Apidays Munich and the Green IO podcast have partnered to bring you the first Green IO conference for the DACH region, packed with the latest insights from thought leaders in Tech Sustainability and hands-on feedback from practitioners scaling Green IT.
Sunday Jul 06, 2025 - Pacific Northwest Climate Week
Pacific Northwest Climate Week is a community-powered event series that unites individuals & organizations. Accelerates the fight against climate change. The week-long gathering brings together climate innovators, thought leaders, & enthusiasts from Seattle, Vancouver, & Portland
Sunday Aug 29, 2027 - Biodiversity Basics for Product Professionals
The products we build rely on and affect nature. This workshop will address: 1. What is biodiversity and why is it relevant for product professionals 2. What can you do & practical examples 3. Your takeaway: first biodiversity analysis along your product's value chain
š° News Highlights
Canary Media: Boston Metal forges path to commercialization for green steel process
Massachusetts-based Boston Metal is on the verge of earning its first revenue as it continues honing aĀ novel steelmaking process so clean it can vent emissions into aĀ parking lot the company shares with aĀ day care center.Ā
"It just proves how different the future of steel can be," said the firm's senior vice president for business development, Adam Rauwerdink.
Mysociety: Tackling the Climate Crisis with Access to Information rights
If you're someone who's concerned about the climate but not really sure what to do about it, this webinar is definitely a good place to start.
Our event this week brought together investigative journalist Lucas Amin of Democracy for Sale; Anne Friel, Head of Just Societies at Client Earth; and Joschi Wolf of the German transparency project Frag Den Staat ā all sharing their knowledge around Freedom of Information as an invaluable tool for tackling the climate crisis.
It was very encouraging to hear practical tips and thoughts that made FOI-based activism seem within reach, even to the beginner. And all from your own desk!
Climate Tech VC: SMRs for GPTs
The AI arms race just hit the grid ā and Google is going nuclear to win. We've got a deep dive of Google's new deal with Elementl Power for SMRs, which takes a new approach to developing advanced nuclear.
Financial Times: The trouble with Microsoft's carbon numbers
According to the International Energy Agency, the carbon emissions attributable to energy used by data centres are surging as artificial intelligence takes off. Tech giants like Microsoft, however, claim that emissions from energy use are a tiny share of their overall carbon footprint, and heading downward. What's going on?
General Aviation News: First electric aircraft lands at JFK
According to Beta Technologies founder Kyle Clark, the flight from the airport in East Hampton to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport took 45 minutes with a pilot and four people.
According to Clark, the ALIA can fly 250 nautical miles on a single charge. He told reporters from Reuters that it cost just $8 to power the flight.
š Papers We Love š
Nature: Carbon majors and the scientific case for climate liability
Will it ever be possible to sue anyone for damaging the climate? Twenty years after this question was first posed, we argue that the scientific case for climate liability is closed. Here we detail the scientific and legal implications of an 'end-to-end' attribution that links fossil fuel producers to specific damages from warming.
More broadly, we outline a transparent, reproducible and flexible framework that formalizes how end-to-end attribution could inform litigation by assessing whose emissions are responsible and for which harms.
(if you want to read the actual paper, this discussion thread on Reddit lists a few approaches if you don't have institutional accessl)
Jobs
Remember only jobs listing salary ranges are listed here - to get your job listed, you need to list a salary range. Folks can still look in the #jobs channel. Remember: if you're looking for advice finding a role, check our #climate-careers channel.
Green Coding Solutions GmbH - Green Software Developer - 70k-100k - Permanent or Freelance - Totally remote
We at Green Coding Solutions (Berlin, Germany) are hiring and looking for a Green Software Developer to join our team :rakete:
Key facts: - Small team dedicated to deliver specialized open source software solutions to help developers reduce carbon emissions of the digital world - Freelance, Part time or full time possible - No restriction days or hours per day - 70k-100k (EUR) for full-time equivalent depending on qualification - Fully remote but occasional need to be in Berlin for Meetups, conferences, client business (no more than 3 times per month) - Must be proficient in German (C1+)
Working Families Party - Data Systems Engineer - $100,000-$137,000 - Permanent - Totally remote
I'm hiring for a Data Systems Engineer at Working Families Party to help build out the data infrastructure of the electoral left! To win change on climate we need an electoral strategy to win governing power, and powerful electoral organizing requires a powerful data team! This is a senior level role working on data engineering, cloud infrastructure, web applications, and workflow automations. This role is remote and the salary band goes up to $137,500.
No need to meet ALL the qualifications sought on this job post. Feel free to reach out with any questions!
If you know someone who might be good - please make sure they see this! Thank you!
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